Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Sephora 2015 Favorites Set

Over the past week, Sephora sent out gift cards to their Beauty Insiders. $5 off for Beauty Insiders, $15 off for VIB, and $25 off for VIB Rouge. Obviously, I am the top level Beauty Insider because I spend an obnoxious amount of money at Sephora. When I got the email with my gift card, I hopped on Sephora and ordered something I have had my eye on for months now, I just would never fork out the money for it. I am talking about the Sephora Favorites: Superstars 2015 kit.
This kit retails for $75,  which is a lot, I know. However, within the kit there is 7 full size and 5 good sized deluxe size items. I ended up getting the kit for $54 since I used my $25 coupon. I got this kit because there were many things I love and some I have been wanting to try forever, but if I bought them separately, it would add up to over $75! So why not get extras for the same price?

The first thing in the kit is a Beauty Blender. It seems pretty basic, but this is the best tool any makeup user could have. It makes doing your makeup so effortless, and it leaves a beautiful finish. I already own two, excessive I know, but it is always good to have backups in case if you're too lazy to clean one which is me every morning. This is full size, and on its own costs $20. 

The kit came with two full size eyeliners: a Stila Stay-All-Day Liquid Liner and a Lancome Drama Liqui-Pencil kohl liner. 
I love liquid liners, it is my preferred way of doing a wing eyeliner. I have hear great things about the one from Stila, and it is very similar to my holy grail Kat Von D Tattoo liner. Stila's liner runs for $22.
The Lancome pencil is one of the blackest and creamiest black eyeliners I have ever used! I am in love and I never want to run out, because Lancome is expensive. A+ from me. This costs $23.


A deluxe size of the Smashbox Photo Finish Primer Water was included in the box. This deluxe size cost $16 alone, while the full size is $30 which seems crazy for a bottle of enhanced water. I'm excited to try it since so many people love this. 


Next up is a Tarte duo of a bamboo brush and The Sculptor Park Ave. Princess Contour Stick. This was sort of a dud to me, but since there were so many great products in the kit I didn't mind having one dud. The stick was really orange, which isn't a good look for me. The brush was too dense to use for powders, but too small to use for liquids, so I don't know what to do with it. 


I received two mascaras in the kit: a deluxe Benefit They're Real! and a full size Touch in Sol Stretchex. I have never tried either of these, but a lot of people love Benefit's so it is great to finally try it. The deluxe size costs $12. I like and hate the Touch in Sol one. I like it for my lower lashes and hate it for my upper lashes. I honestly don't know why it was included in the kit, because it is not a top seller of 2015. I think they were just trying to get people to know about the brand. However, it must be well loved because it has 5 stars on Sephora's site and retails for $22


The two highlighters I got rule the kit. I am a highlighter junkie. I have over a dozen just because they are my weakness and I can't have enough. I got a full size Clinique Chubby Stick in the shade 01 Hefty Highlight. It is a pink tone cream highlighter, and it is the first pink tone highlight I own! It is very pretty. This retails for $22.
The one thing I have been wanting for EVER is the Laura Mercier Matte Radiance Highlight. The full size is $40, however I will never go through a whole highlight compact in my life since you use so little each time. I am so happy that this was included in the kit!


There was one complexion product in the kit and that is the Make Up For Ever Hydrating Face Primer. I already own and love this product in a full size tube, so I am saving the deluxe size for a backup because I do not want to go without. This deluxe size sells for $12, but it is so good that it is worth it to get the full size! 


Last but not least, the kit came with two full size eyeshadows. The first one is the Urban Decay Shadow in the shade Lounge. Lounge is a duochrome green-red shadow. I love duo-chromes so I will get a lot of use out of this. This retails for $19

The second shadow I am soooooo excited for! It is the NARS Duel Intensity Shadow in the shade Himalaya. I have been wanting to try these shadows since I had gotten into makeup. However this shadow is $32. Yes. $32. For one shadow. That is ridiculous! I finally got one though, for a better price which I am thrilled for. 

And that is the whole kit! I think it is so worth it for $50. Even $75 would be worth it, but to get it on sale is a plus. I could have gotten three of the products in here and spend over $75, but I got a bunch of extra and amazing products for the same cost. This kit is an A+++! :) 

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Top 5 Favorite Lipsticks!

Last time I wrote about my top five favorite eyeshadows. To continue on my favorites, I am going to talk about my top five lipsticks! This is going to be extremely difficult because I am in LOVE with lipstick. I have waaaaay too many to choose from: liquid, matte, glossy, satin, cream, tubes, pots... there's so many to choose from! So here's my top five in my own collection. :)

1.) Colourpop Lippie Stix in the shade Bound

If I am not wearing any makeup, you will most likely see me in this shade. This is my all-time favorite lipstick, out of the couple dozen that I own. It is my favorite nudey pink, and it goes with basically anything that I am wearing!


2.) Kat Von D Liquid Lipstick in the shade Lolita


This liquid liner is one of my tops, obviously since it is in this post. It is a beautiful dusty rose color, and I wear it when I am in a grungy mood. I love wearing this in the fall time. It looks amazing when I am wearing colors like olive green, brown, and burgundy.

3.) Ofra Liquid Lipstick in the shade Miami Fever 

This one is special to me because it was a collab with one of my favorite youtubers: Kathleen Lights. She was one of the first beauty bloggers that I started watching, and I still watch her to this day! Not only was I thrilled that she had a collaboration, I really loved the color. It is so unique; it is a burnt orange-y brown. I had never seen a color like it, which is what makes her and the shade amazing. The formula is one of my favorites too.


4.) Colourpop Lippie Stix in Grunge

This shade is exactly what the name is: a grungy color. Its a brown, burnt reddish orange color. It is perfect for when I am feeling grungier than KVD Lolita. I have worn this many times throughout the fall season.


5.) Mac Lipstick in the shade Honeylove

Last but not least, Mac Honeylove. This is a sort of washed out nude, but since I am so pale, I can pull it off. This is my favorite nude color of all time, and it's Mac, so it feels "cool" to wear! Plus the smell of Mac lipsticks is vanilla-y so thats a plus. 

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

VIB Sale

The Sephora VIB sale is this weekend, and I have been waiting for this for months now. Sephora hardly ever has sales, but twice a year, in April and November, they offer their more dedicated customers a 20% discount.

Before this sale was announced, I told myself that I was going to have a "No Buy November." I even bet my manager, Jon, $20 that I could go a whole month without buying anything non-essential. We made exceptions for gas, food, and coffee, but that's it. But who could pass up 20% off? Not me, thats for sure. This is a bet worth losing, and I am okay with that.

I am $150 away from being a VIB Rouge, which is the highest level member at Sephora. That fact that I had spent over $1000 in a year literally blows my mind. Looking around at my collection, it doesn't look like I have that much, but according to every makeup site out there, I do.

In order to somewhat go along with my bet, I am only going to spend $150 at the sale. Look at me, trying to justify spending $150 on more makeup that I don't need. But hey, its a passion of mine. I'd rather work harder for more money than to not be able to do what I love: exploring the world of beauty.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Top 5 Favorite Eyeshadows of All Time

I have hundreds of eyeshadows in my collection. Literally. Hundreds. However, I have a few that stand out over others. These are my top five shades, and I use at least two or more of them each day. It's funny how I can own a variety of shades, but I always end up back at the same few, and they all look somewhat similar. Each of these shades flatter my skintone and eyecolor amazingly, and I will definitely repurchase these as soon as I hit a dent in one.

Makeup Geek - Bitten
This reddish, burgundy shade is perfect for fall time. I mean, I will use it year round, but it suites the season. I use it in my crease, my lower lashline, my outer-v, on my lid. I basically just described my whole eye because I will literally wear this anywhere since I love it that much.

Anastasia Beverly Hills - Morocco
I would describe this color as a burnt orange. This color is also my favorite for fall, but I wore it all summer since it is a bright, super warm color.

If you can not see a pattern yet, I love warm browns and oranges over everything. This time of year is perfect to wear them, even though I wear these colors 365 days a year.

Makeup Geek - Cocoa Bear
This shade is an everyday must for me. It is almost identical to Morocco, but it is more on the brown side than orange. I will pair this with any look I do; it flatters almost anything.

Lorac Mega Pro 2 - Cinnamon
This shade is perfect to place all over the lid. It is a warm copper-brown and very shimmery. It works for an everyday looking brown smokey eye, which is my go-to. This shade with any of the shades above work the best together.


Buxom - Silk Sheets
This is my all-time favorite brow bone highlight. It is an opaque cream color which makes my eyebrows look extremely lifted, which is a look I love.
This one is especially cool because the brand Buxom allows you to customize your own palette with 6 different colors in it. That is how I discovered this shade.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Flapper Halloween

Flappers had a signature look. They rocked smokey eyes, thin red lips, cheeky blush, and thin brows. They did not have the fads of sharp contours and highlighting so bright you can be seen from space, which is what I like. I took the classic flapper makeup and put my own twist to it. And I am here to show you how.

I had pictures of everything that I did, step by step, but somehow, they got deleted. So there’s that…

Before I did anything, I moisturized my face with First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream. It is important to moisturize before you do your makeup, especially if you are putting a lot of products on it like Halloween.
For this look, I used one palette: The Lorac Mega Pro 2.

To start off the look, I primed my eyelids and set the primer with the shade Porcelain. Priming your eyes will ensure that your look will last all night long, and setting it will make every other color blend so much easier.

Next I took the shade Ash and blend it into my crease. It doesn’t matter how messy it gets, because it will get cleaned up in the end.

Next I took the shade Gunmetal and placed it on the inner 2/3 of my lid. Then I realized Gunmetal was too dark, so I put the shade Sandstone right on top of it. After each step, I took the blending shade, Ash, and blended it into the crease once again to get rid of the harsh lines.

To deepen the look, I took the shade Black Ivy and placed it on the bare part of my lid. Since Black Ivy is a shimmer black shade, it wasn’t as dark as I wanted, so I took a matte black shade and placed it on top. Next I blend, blend, blend!

Make sure you always blend to the best of your ability when using black shadow! That is the most important thing when it comes to black, since it is so intense. As you can see, it is blended very messily. However, that is okay because the next step is to take a makeup wipe and create a sharp line following your lower lashline.

Now that there is a sharp line, it will be so easy to create a sharp wing. I used the Maybelline Eyestudio Gel Eyeliner using an angled brush. This isn’t my favorite way to apply eyeliner, but it suites the flapper look much better because gel liner is much softer than liquid eyeliner.

Now that my wing is sharp enough to cut a bitch, I took a black matte shadow again and blended it inward from the wing. It sounds complicated, but it’s really not! It’s just blending the black gel liner into the eyeshadow.
The eyes are basically done! I did my normal complexion routine. I used a primer, foundation, and concealer from Maybelline.

Flappers were not into the fads of big, bold brows. Usually when I do my eyebrows, I slightly over draw them to make them appear a little bigger. Flappers waxed their eyebrows to ultra thin lines, and then penciled them in. To mimic the appearance, I just filled in the sparse areas in my eyebrows.

Next, I took pink blush and placed it only on the apples of my cheeks. Flappers did not do the contour, blush, highlight that is the rage right now. They only wore blush, so that is what I did.

To finish off my eyes, I just put mascara on. Flappers did not do anything to their lower lashline, such as smoking it out. If this were a normal look, I would imitate the lip on the lower lashline using the same colors. However, I am trying to be true to flapper’s makeup as possible. On Halloween, I am going to wear false lashes to make the look even more dramatic, but I do not have any at the moment.

To finish off the look, I did my lips. Flappers had small, petite lips. They did not overdraw their lips to look like Kylie Jenner. In fact, they didn’t fill in their lips all the way. To mimic their lips, I took a red lipliner and partially filled in my lips. I lined right underneath the lip line. I focused the thin part on the outer portions of my lips. My cupids bow and lower lip, I filled in entirely.
For the lipstick, I recommend a liquid lipstick. They tend to last far longer than a regular lipstick, which is great for Halloween and being out all night.

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And that is the completed look! Happy Halloween!

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

A Place For Me: The Beauty Community

Everyone has their own thing, and mine is makeup.

Every hobby has its own community, whether you are into makeup, playing video games, watching sports, go hunting, or even watching Friends; there is a place to go where you will find people who enjoy the same things as you do.

The beauty community is an amazing group to be a part of. Although I might not be active, such as having my own account, I keep up with everything. I am always keeping up with new products coming out and new techniques being taught.

Everyone who is a part of the community has the greatest personality. Everyone has such kind hearts, and they all promote loving each other. I have never heard any of the women I follow hate one another. They all are there to pick you up when you are down, and there to keep you in the best mood ever. The way that everyone treats each other in this community encourages me to be a better person each day.

Ever since I have been into makeup, I found myself in a better mood. Before, I did not have a “thing”. I did not have people who were into similar things to me, since I did not have something to share.  Now I have so many people to share my interest with. I can comment on someones instagram and get so many replies about how they like a certain product. They can give me their likes and dislikes, which help me decide what I want to purchase next and vice versa.

I have felt my confidence grow since I have been a part of a group. Now that I have friends who share a common interest, I know that I can never be alone, even if I may never meet any of the girls I talk to. I have been such a happier person, and I hardly have any bad moments. If I am in a bad mood, I can get online and watch my favorite youtubers and read comments and my mood is lifted instantly.

In the beauty community, I am never alone.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Do What You Want!

When you wake up in the morning, there are several things you need to do: get dressed, brush you hair and teeth, and eat breakfast. Getting dressed before you leave your house is essential; you can’t walk around naked in public, unless you want to get arrested or something. It is something you have to do in the eyes of society.
Society has the image of women all wrong. They say that women are ugly if they do not have a face full of makeup and a stick thin body. What happened to being a nice person? Or having morals? What happened to loving someone’s personality over their looks? It seems like society has forgotten all of this. As long as you’re thin and pretty, everyone will love you!
Wrong. If you are not into wearing makeup, then don’t wear it! It is as simple as that. So what if everyone on earth is raving about Kylie Jenner’s lips and how to use makeup to do it for yourself? If you don’t want it, don’t do it just because everyone thinks you should.
Wearing makeup should not feel like putting on clothes in the morning. You should not be spending an extra 20 minutes in the morning doing something that you do not want to do. If you want to spend that long, then do it by all means. But if you feel like you have to wear a full face of makeup to be “normal” in today’s world, you have it all wrong.
Wearing and doing your makeup should be enjoyable; it is an art. It takes time, effort, practice, and money to be able to have amazing outcomes. If you spend hundreds of dollars and hours of your time for someone else, think of all of the other things that you could be doing for yourself. You could be bettering yourself, making friends, studying for class, even watching Netflix!
However, if you are like me, and don’t give a sh*t about what society says, do what you want. Some days I will wear a full face of makeup. Some days I will walk out the door looking like I just woke up. I do my makeup when I feel like it and how I want to. I will wear purple lipstick if I wanted to, and society in general would be like WTF is she wearing, even though they say girls should wear makeup. But that’s a different rant for a different time…